Born in 1976 in Havana, Cuba, Glenda León had a first artistic education at the School of Plastic Art “20 de octubre” in Havana. Followed by an instruction in classical ballet in the Centro Prodanza, she also studied art history at the University of Havana. Additionally, she made her Master in Art at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany and had a research scholarship from the MAEC in Madrid. Furthermore, she was several times artist in residence in Canada, France, Panama, Philippines and the United States and was honoured by Cuban and international awards, inter alia the Premio LARA 2017 by the Asiaciti Trust Foundation, the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and the UNESCO prize for the Arts at the VII Biennale of Havana.
The oeuvre of Glenda is very versatile. She creates objects, sculptures, installations and videos. These might reappear in interventions in public space. Moreover, she makes drawings and photos. Additionally, she published several artist books for example a series called “Fragmented Reading”, where a triangle part of the book is cut out and presented as piece of cake on a white plate.
In her work, Glenda often reflects upon conditions in societies. In 2018, she created a series with ancient typewriters. Depending on her additions to the machines, the objects are aiming at language and its fervent applicability (Incendiary discourse), at the fragility of elements added to the body for aesthetic purposes (Noli me tangere – or the impossible writing) or at the insatiable appetite for taking and not giving (The insatiable writer).
Glenda seized money and its conventions several times. The video “Inversion II” from 2011, our Artwork of the Month June 2019, witnesses this interest likewise the later version from 2016 (Inversion III). “Inversion II” was inter alia projected 2017 in the group exhibition “Art x Cuba: Contemporary Perspectives since 1989, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany and in 2019 in Glenda’s solo show “Listening to the stars” in Turin, Italy at Recontemporary. Also in 2016, reappeared 50 One-US-Dollar-notes in her pocket version of the Holy Bible, where they were added to the binding.
Another recurring subject is music. Already in 2005, she started to work on a grand piano, decorated by artificial flowers. Finished in 2012, “Magical found object n. 5” is currently part of the group exhibition “Hot Spot” (24 October 2022 – 26 February 2023) in the Galleria Nazionale Arte Moderna in Rome, Italy. In 2011, Glenda made some sheets of notes, with visual elements like drops and autumn foliage under the titles “Listen to … Autumn/Rain/the Flight”. The series “Listening to silence” (2012) comprises empty sheets of notes, partly as paper, but also as sculpture with strings. Since then, the note sheet is recurring also in other works. For her contribution to the Cuban Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), she created “Music of the spheres” where images of the solar system served as score for a sound installation. She arranged and processed music instruments, like the piano, a guitar or harps for her series “Concrete Music” and “Metamorphosis”. In her series of visual instruments from 2020, which represents natural elements, Glenda uses components of musical instruments, to enable the public “Listening to the Sun/the Rain/the Stars and the Moon”. “Listening to the Stars” is also in the current exhibition in Rome and was with “Magical found object n. 5” part of a musical performance in occasion of the opening. “Listening to the Moon” is our Artwork of the Month November 2022 and presented in a solo show from November the 5th 2022 in the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery in Madrid, Spain.
Since 1999, Glenda’s creations were presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Latin and North America and Europe, but also in Senegal (Dakar Biennale), China and Japan (Aichi Triennale 2022).
Glenda’s works are part of many public and private collections in Cuba and abroad, for example Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, and The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Glenda lives and works in Havana and Madrid.